I’ve received one jury summons; it took two mornings out of my life. I had to attend one morning cattle call, where you sign in and are placed on a jury. Around here, all of the courts in the area pool their resources and you can request a Federal, State or municipal court case. I selected municipal, showed up two weeks later, and was kicked out after voir dire well before lunchtime.
Local municipal cases are usually settled in less than a day. A lot of people request federal or state district trials though, because the cases are more interesting.
Been summoned twice for state level (indiana), and was empaneled once on a nothing drunk driving case.
Last summer, I was also summoned for federal grand jury while I was laid off. I wrote them a letter explaining that I was laid off, and actively job hunting. I said that I was specifically requesting NOT to be excused, just that I was asking for for consideration, and I was willing to serve. They excused me anyway, and it was a good thing because by the time the grand jury term started, I had moved to Virginia.
Jury pay sucks, and in some cases (FedGov Civil Service is one) you have to surrender your jury pay minus the allowed expenses (parking and meals) in order to get jury leave pay. If you were seated, it was something like $20 a day.
Also. FWIW, when I was last summoned for state duty, Marion County Indiana courts were in a financial bind, and they were asking for volunteers to give up their pay. I did not, but I took the check, paid myself the $6 downtown parking fee I had, and then sent the rest back.
I’ve gotten questionaires for Federal Grand Jury a couple of times, which I answered but never heard anything from. I’ve been summoned once for Superior Court and once for State Court. I spent two days sitting in the court room for the Superior Court summons. The first day we just sat for six hours before being told to go home and come back the next day. The next day we sat until noon and were dismissed because all the cases were settled without coming before a jury. The State Court summons resulted in getting to sit on a jury for a week for divorce trials. This was in my home town. I learned quite a few juicy details about the married lives of some of my fellow townspeople that week! On both occasions I was paid a big $15.00 a day. We got little cards each day that said we were on jury duty to stick on our cars so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking.
I still want to serve on a Federal Grand Jury. I have no idea why, but it sounds like it’d be interesting.
I sat on a jury about 3 years ago. It took one week–one of those frivolous lawsuits where some schmo crashed his motorcycle and sued everyone he could think of for pain and suffering. He couldn’t prove his case so he lost. It was an interesting experience and I learned a lot more about the judicial system than I ever learned in a classroom. They paid $10 a day plus parking and my job kicked in jury duty pay, so I actually came out ahead.
My dad served on a grand jury about a year ago–I think he served something like 3 months. I don’t remember. They paid him a little bit more, plus he got one meal a day and a parking hangtag. Dad loved it. I think if it were an actual job you could apply for, he’d be all over that.
I have been called three times in the last 18 years. The first time, I delayed and delayed and finally had to go in. When I got there I told the clerk I could not serve due to financial hardship because my job did not pay for time off due to jury duty. The second time, my job only paid for 5 days service. I didn’t get called until the fourth day, I told the judge I could not serve due to financial hardship, since I only had one more day off from work with pay. The third time, my job paid up to three weeks for jury duty, and I got on a jury at the end of the first week and the trial ended (hung jury) on the first day of the third week.
The one thing that struck me about jury duty was how little time was actually spent ‘jury-ing’ relative to the total time spent. First I spent hours in the jury pool room waiting to be called, then I spent hours in the courtroom as the jury was selected. Once the trial began, we spent at most 5 hours being a jury out of the 8 hours we were required to be at or near the courthouse each day. The trial itself was probably only about 12 hours in total length but it stretched out over six days, including a day and a half for jury selection and a day and a half for jury deliberations.
I read about 9 full-length novels while I served my jury duty.
I was called in once, but wasn’t picked to serve. The way my county handles it, is that you come in for a day during selection. You fill out a little form that asks things like if you’re friends/relatives of any cops/lawyers/etc., if you’ve been a victim of a crime, and so on, and are given a number. If by the end of the day you haven’t been chosen for a jury, you don’t have to come back until you are called again. You sit around in a huge waiting room until your number is called. (If your number isn’t called by 5 pm or whatever, you get to go home until you are summoned again, as well.) Then a couple dozen people file into a courtroom, a few are called into the jury box, and the basics of the case are explained. The lawyers question them one at a time, and each candidate is either kept or rejected.
I was called into the room with other potential jurors for a suit over a two-car accident. One person was claiming injuries. I was rejected because of one or all of the following things, which I was questioned on and answered truthfully about: sister-in-law who is a lawyer at a health insurance company, I worked in a hospital with doctors who discussed medical issues with me, I was in a car accident where the insurance company screwed up who was at fault and tried to come after my husband and I (they picked the wrong car out of the list of cars involved, which was the same manufacturer but wrong model as the one that caused it), and I generally didn’t hold chiropractors in much esteem. After the jury was chosen, the rejected and not questioned people all went back to the waiting room until the end of the day; you had a chance for your number to be picked again and so had to wait it out to see.
I am a public defender, so although I have been called for jury duty 5 times, all criminal cases, I’ve never served. Well, not really. I got called to federal court once, but I had just broken my elbow the previous week in an unfortunate rollerblading incident, and I told the judge that I was on painkillers, so he sent me home.
Got called to Superior (felony) court three times, but the defendant pled guilty before they even started jury selection in all three cases.
This past January, I was called into State (misdemeanor) court. It's been 14 years since I've practiced in the county where I live, so most of the prosecutors don't know me. There was a newbie prosecutor trying a DUI case- both of the defense attorneys knew me, and didn't ask me any questions. The prosecutor just asked me if I knew anyone in his office- I raised my hand and said I knew his boss, and he didn't ask me anything else. I woulnd up on the jury, but while we were on our lunch break they had a hearing and the judge threw out the breath test and the state had to dismiss the case.
So I still haven't gotten to be on a jury, but I'd love to be!
I’ve received the letter 3 times (IIRC) and gone twice (I’m positive about that).
It was boring and I didn’t get to sit on the actual jury. I arrived in the morning, was rejected for serving on a jury, went back to wait until another trial (after lunch) and was rejected again.
This processed happened to me twice. I’m thinking next time they call me I’ll just send them a letter saying something to the effect of “what’s the point? I’m not going to make it on the jury anyway, so unless this trial is for something non insurance related, do you think I can just sit this one out?”
I doubt it’d fly though…
I think I received something like 15 dollars for each day, but I can’t really recall.
The first was a criminal case in my college town in the early '90’s, and it was a damned if we convicted, damned if we didn’t kind of thing. I knew I was in for it when my name was #2 on the list when they checked us in. Mr. Kat saved the paper for me to read after the trial was over, and they had pretty much scrapped printing letters to the editor that had anything to do with something besides the trial. It was a nightmare - we had one guy who waited til we were deliberating to tell us that he didn’t believe it was his place to sit in judgement on anyone for anything. He held us up for 2 solid days. I still have no idea if our arguments swayed him, or if he realized that we’d probably still be there now if he didn’t make a damned decision, and at this point I don’t want to know. IIRC, we got $2/day plus parking passes for the downtown area.
The next was 3 years ago, almost to the week, and it was a case about settlements from a car accident. We listened to a day and a half of testimony and were then dismissed because a dollar figure we weren’t supposed to hear about from a previous offer was mentioned. That was also a nightmarish time, for different reasons: Several months before I got called, I was asked to change my vacation dates to accommodate a co-worker who had to reschedule a cruise due to a hurricane, and I did so. Then I got my summons to start jury duty the Monday I should have come back to work after my vacation. My grandmother died while I was serving, so there was the funeral late in the week. Less than a month later, I got laid off. I don’t know that those 2 weeks had anything to do with it, but it still kind of nags at me. I can’t remember if we got $3 or $6 per day, but they gave us vouchers for the parking lots around the courthouse, and a certificate, suitable for framing in a personnel file, to prove you really were doing your civic duty.
I got another summons last week, and sent my questionnaire in. Today I got a postcard saying I was excused. One of the questions was if you’d served in the last 3 years, and to describe the circumstances, so I assume that’s what got me excused. Can’t think of what else it could have been, since I’m not a lawyer, judge, or convicted felon.
On both occasions I was paid a big $15.00 a day. We got little cards each day that said we were on jury duty to stick on our cars so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking.